Schwarzschild black hole - Definition and Overview

A Schwarzschild black hole or static black hole is a black hole fully defined by its only parameter, the mass M. In general black holes could have in addition angular momentum (rotating black holes) and electric charge (see charged black holes). A Schwarzschild black hole has zero angular momentum and no charge.

The Schwarzschild black hole is characterized by a surrounding area, called the event horizon which is situated at the Schwarzschild radius, often called the radius of a black hole. Any spherically symmetric non-rotating and non-charged mass whose size is smaller than the Schwarzschild radius forms a black hole.

The static black hole is represented by the Schwarzschild metric, a solution to the Einstein field equations for a point mass in empty space (vacuum), found by Karl Schwarzschild in 1916. The solution of the Einstein field equations is valid for any mass M, so in principle (according to general relativity theory) a Schwarzschild black hole of any mass could exist if nature is kind enough to form one.

See also

• black hole, a general review
• Reissner-Nordstrøm black hole

Black holes by type

• rotating black hole or Kerr black hole
• charged black hole, Newman black hole and Kerr-Newman black hole

A classification by mass

• micro black hole and extra-dimensional black hole
• primordial black hole, a hypothetical leftover of the Big Bang
• stellar black hole, which could either be a static black hole or a rotating black hole
• supermassive black hole, which could also either be a static black hole or a rotating black hole

• Hawking radiation